See It Thru My Eyes

This deviation is meant to represent me, in the sense of what I have "seen" or "lived thru" during the course of my 18 years of life.
I decided to do this as a form of expressing and acknowledging just how much has changed in the world since I was born - particularly as my 18th birthday is in a day. It is usually at this milestone in your life that you sit back and admire just what you have accomplished, and what experiences have helped to shape you into the adult you're about to become.

I know that the symbols I've used won't cover every significant event of the last 18 years but I've tried to choose those events that were either relevant to me directly or had a significant impact on the world and are important to acknowledge in my 'vision'.

An explanation of the imagery and symbolism:
~Two sections of the Berlin Wall ~
I was born in december of '88, and therefore I've always associated myself with this important milestone. It also doubles up in significance as I was born in Germany, and although I'm not german, I was present in the country at the time of the event.

~The Soviet Union's emblem~
This one is not directly related to me in the exact same way that the Berlin Wall is, but the two are connected. There is also the importance of acknowledging the change bought about by the fall of Communism.

~2000 Sydney Olympic Games~
Although I've been around to see various Olympic Games in addition to these, their presence in Australia bought about a new level of understanding of the tradition and its importance. Alongside this, these were the games where, for the first time, I fully followed the games and also the first real point in my life where I felt strong pride for my country and its achievements; that fierce pride that you get when you realise the importance of your own country. I cannot describe it, but hopefully everyone will understand what I'm driving at.

~Michael Jordan~
He was the first sport star I was fully aware off to retire, leaving behind him a legacy rarely seen since. As a kid, to see a sportstar that seems to have always been there and part of what you considered a 'normal sight' on TV, suddenly makes you realise that these stars are human afterall, and they are not immortal. It also makes you feel for the first time, that feeling that nothing lasts forever, and its frightening to sense that for the first time - Suddenly you start to realise that just like the sport stars, your parents, your friends, everything you know, will change.

~Princess Diana~
Her death was another experience where you realise that those that appear on TV are mortals, and just like everyone else, they can die. To see the power that her death had on people was another new experience.

~September 11 attacks~
This one is more self-explanatory; the day where the world suddenly was not the big, annoynmous place where nothing bad at this scale could happen. I remember waking up on the morning and just watching it all unfold on the news - it looked like a scene out of a movie. Its also strongly influenced life overall from that point on; flying on a plane suddenly took a frightening new meaning. Not to mention that everyone learnt a new word and definition: Terrorism.

~The 2003 Canberra Bushfires memorial~
This one struck close to home as the Bushfires came too close for comfort to our house in Curtin, and I remember it was an uneasy 3 days watching the sky burning with a fiery red, and seeing the amounts of smoke. Our suburb was placed on high alert on January 18th, and one of the worse experiences is having to prepare emergency kits and find all those important papers. While at the same time hoping like hell your stuff isn't going to dissappear.
The extent of the damage that occured due to the fires also meant that I knew many people who lost their homes during that disaster, and even just driving around the burnt out streets was breathtaking.

~Death of Pope John Paul II~
This one, like the other prominent figures, presented the realisation that, again, nothing was immortal. This pope was the man who I'd literally grown up with, and his name still remains as my main connection to the position of Pope and the Vatican.